Hello APJ Crew,
On February 29 2012 my mate Eve and I started Australian Perfume Junkies.
Thank You to everyone who has come on the journey for any part of that six years.
We have made friends from around the corner to the farthest reaches of the world. Many of them I have been lucky enough to meet in person. Some of them have become writers here at APJ. Continue reading
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Portia
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Hiya APJ Crew,
Thanks to Oliver Valverde for his generosity. Don’t forget to pop in to the shop if you’re in Spain. Report back if you do.
Oliver & Co Discovery Set €24/8 x 2ml (with a 24€ gift voucher for purchase of a full size bottle)
FREE SHIPPING with code FREESHIPPING til Feb 28 2018
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Portia
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Hey there lovers of extraordinary fragrance,
Oliver & Co seems like a house that flies under the radar. I don’t understand it. The perfumes are interesting, challenging and bizarre but most of all totally wearable. To anyone passing you in the street you’d just smell awesome. It’s the detail, the fragrant stories, the unusual juxtaposition of ingredients and stellar longevity that all make them so buyable to me.
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Portia
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Hey there APJ,
This week was supposed to be about organising and catching up on life, business and the blog but somewhere along the line it all got turned to fragrance & fun. I do try to focus but some weeks my head is on another planet. Oh well, I smelled freaking fabulous!
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Portia
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Heya APJ Crew,
Whirlwind week. Perfume and peeps, art and travel to Adelaide with Jin, Eve and Lola. There’s been loads of great food and adventuring. Life has been very good to us, now I need a bloody rest.
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Portia
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Hello Australian Perfume Junkies,
Highs and lows this week. Some wonderful friends, food, finance and fragrance. Added in were some bass news stories. This time of year is often so tumultuous.
9.30am. I must have been tired. Slept like a log. I felt the need for an aquatic today and L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme Intense is my favourite. It has the perfect kick of incense to counter the cool blast of salt watery citrus.
Jin ands I went and saw the money guy. There was something off about him today and he couldn’t look me in the eye. I asked Jin if we could walk around the block and ask another bank for a second opinion. They could offer us a .5% less expensive home loan, had a better way of structuring it and were amazing. We have begun talks.
After that we went and saw the owner of the new property and asked him to start drawing up contracts. It was very exciting.
Then we lunched at our favourite nearby cafe. It’s nice to just hang with Jin, he’s good company.
Home for a nap, slept through the worst heat of the day. I do feel a bit groggy now. Better spritz some Guerlain Shalimar EdP and vintage parfum. Quite fragrant. Wafting in the park while giving the dogs their afternoon wee was fun. Extravagant.
Came home and decided to drink the good tea. Fortnum & Mason Royal Blend. Once I have a cup it’s like a fever, need another immediately. Tea is my heaven.
From Fortnum & Mason: In this classic Royal Blend notes of Flowery Pekoe from Ceylon uplift the maltier Assam …. First blended for King Edward in 1902
Jin and I went out late in the evening to do some grocery shopping. It’s nice in the cool evening to go get our fruit and groceries. He also had to go to the chemist. We got home around 9.30pm and this scary bastard ran out of our garage and across the driveway. O M G! The size of my foot. Squealed like a stuck pig. The perimeter of the garage is a toxic no go zone for all creepy crawlies so he was wobbling like a drunken sailor but nevertheless he gave us quite a scare.
Home and back to my computer. It’s Trivia Q&A time again. I’ve grabbed a coffee and multi spritzed some more Shalimar EdP. MMMMMMM
Doing loads of washing in between Q&A and hanging them up. It’s a good break.
SHIT! 4am. Just finished my Q&A. MORE SHALIMAR & bed.
Woke up to Scott on the doorstep. TOO GUMMY TO BE ALIVE moment.
Spritzed oodles of Guerlain Lui and am feeling more human for it. So Scott gets pepper and I’m getting a subtle patchouli. Both if us are probably wrong.
Jin and I were running the bank gauntlet again today. Why are they all fucking liars?
Beards dye, bath and UBER spritzed Penhaligon’s Ostara. Freaky yellow flowers, both fluorescent bright and surrounded by boggy marsh. Love it every time.
When it came time to dress for work I gave myself another 15 spritzes and floated on a sea of fabulous spring florals. HEAVEN!
Couldn’t concentrate on the blog work at all tonight so I made a cuppa. grabbed some bikkies and headed for the second season of The Crown with a few good spritzes of Lolita Lempicka EdP again.
Morning APJ, I slept wrong and this morning I’ve got a nasty twinge in my back. A little bit of a morning stretch, walking the dogs etc and I should be right. Micallef Ylang in Gold today. It’s thick and syrupy lushness so tropical and fruity. Extra glam
Today was a Wendy day. My mate Wendy and I went shopping for the Christmas presents she is giving this year. We also got her hair cut and manicure done. She is 100% Christmas ready now. Then we had a delicious lunch. They were Toasted Turkish Bread Sandwiches; hers Turkey Salad and mine BLAT. We also had some hot chips and cups of tea. A perfect day out, we were bushed by the end of it.
Home for a nap under the fan, blessed relief.
Off to work I went in Diptyque Eau Duelle. It’s my first full wearing from a bottle I bought. Somehow my nose felt this was a resinous white floral. A beautiful, tropical white floral perfect for summer. Oh well, none of the notes are that but that’s what my nose smells, go figure.
Home, faffed around on the computer but got nothing done. Midnight so I’m for an early night. Finished another 10ml of DSH Perfumes Giverny In Bloom. Ice cold A/C, swampy green that clears to cool florals. Perfection.
Not in bed yet at 1am and needed some extra oomph so Niki de Saint Phalle. SO good.
Wrapped Christmas presents.
I might have had a delivery or two arrive. mmmmmmmmm
Dinner at Liu Rose Chinese restaurant with the crew. wearing Fort & Manle Charlatan. TinaG was loving it and kept getting g happy wafts through the night. Delectable.
Home to bed, big spritzes of Yves Saint Laurent Opium Posie de Chine.
Fort & Manle Charlatan again. Freaking LOVING it.
Lunch with Kerri & Tim. Shopping. Met up with Alice for a cuppa. Lovely day in town.
Watched Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire and Paddington Bear.
Jin asked me to put his 6 pack in the fridge. I thought it looked very colourful in there so I took a photo. Pretty huh?
HOT here, melting.
Bed: Oliver & Co Ambergreen. Someone mentioned it on one of the FB boards and I was inspired. Boundary pushing, freaky shit that both burns and cools. Smells amazing but like nothing I know. Full icy green and sweet amber woods. Crazy.
I have a whole day to myself. At leisure. Woke up and did some texting and computer work quite early and then while still in a half asleep daze went back to bed till nearly 10am. What a fabulously extravagant way to spend the morning.
BFF Kath’s Mum collapsed this morning so we went to visit her in hospital. She was fairly poorly but still chatty and did her best to be cheered up by us. We could tell it was uphill going though.
Decided I would do the weeks APJ blogging today but it was too hot to think.
Jin brought Korean Fried Chicken home for dinner and we watched some TV. It was a very low key day and evening.
One thing I’m really noticing though is the cicadas, crickets and frogs are all singing well into the evening. Like a chorus of nature going on outside. It’s lovely as I sit back in my office.
Super bummer tonight. I sat down and opened an eMail from my boss at a venue I’ve been hosting trivia in for over 15 years. Thinking it was a Christmas Thank You note I was totally unprepared for it to be a termination notice. What a bummer. Watching families grow and blossom over the last 15 years has been extraordinary and I will miss our regular Thursday nights together. So sad.
Instead of moping we fed the dogs and walked them. Then I ran myself a warm bath with Olympic Orchids Amber/Labdanum Bath Oil. It’s hard to feel sad when the bath smells so good but my mind is going 100 miles an hour to work out my next move. I think a good sleep will help me organise my head a bit better.
Vintage Bal a Versailles parfum dabbed on my wrist before bed. If that can’t take my mind off drama then nothing will.
Couldn’t sleep. I find myself back in my office at the computer. MORE Bal a Versailles, so good.
Pedi with Kath then lunch in the Food court. We went and visited her Mum in hospital and she is looking 70% better, a bit of colour and a genuine smile.
It’s so hot I’m sweating like a farm hand. Trying to put make up on is proving a trial. GRRRRR. Oh well, can’t be comfortable every night.
Had the BEST time with the Austral Bowling Club crew tonight. A few of them left before we took this shot but you can tell how beautiful they all are. Wore ridiculous amounts of The Different Company Tokyo Bloom tonight in the heat, perfect.
It’s YOUR turn. What’s happening in your world?
Did you do anything Fun or Fragrant, with Friends and Family or maybe even had some less than Fabulous news you want to share? Now’s the time, in the comments below.
We love to read what’s happening to YOU.
Portia xx
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Portia
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Hey Crew,
I’m home. Best place on earth.
What a holiday, heaps more India to share. More friends, fun, food and especially fragrance.
OK, it’s Monday morning and I’m in Alwar, Rajasthan, India. Can’t sleep because Australia is having a non-binding postal vote about Equality, Marriage Equality to be specific. The hate, lies and vitriol spewed by the NO camp has me nearly hyperventilating with rage and a resurgence of the sinking feeling that comes from external bullying (the internal can be pretty bad too) that I know so well from a basically sunlit youth full of sly, snide, confrontational, half-heard, whispered, shouted, aggressive, implied and ultimately violent homophobia.
If you are Australian and have not yet voted, PLEASE VOTE YES.
FAST DAY!! I know, bet you never thought you’d read me saying that? Well, Varun fasts twice a week, he’s allowed juice and fruit till sunset. We added masala chai to the list and some peanuts for me at around 6pm because I was about to eat the furniture.
Varun and I did some more shopping today. Some final gifts. We sat in the shade drinking soda and watched the world go by for a happy 20 minutes.
Wearing Oliver & Co Vaninger today. It’s a freaky, weird ginger masala chai scent and smells SO GOOD in the Indian heat.
Dinner was with Varun, Mummy and Pappa and Achal (their older son). The food was wonderful. They are a pretty quiet family when they’re together so conversation was happily sporadic.
Afterwards I was ambushed with an after dinner party. The LAST thing on my list of things to do. There’s a particular person at these events who tries to negatively engage people, you know opens with a derogatory comment. This years opening gambit was “Hello, you got so bald.” I shook his hand, thanked him, turned on my heel and walked out of the party. Varun didn’t even have to be asked, he just handed me the car keys and off I went. The bully came after me saying, “Aussies aren’t such wimps” and equally endearing things. Finally he came up behind me, grabbed my shoulders and said in my ear, “Surely I haven’t offended you.” My reply was to shrug him off, say, “Yes….. Don’t touch me” and get in the car, locking the door. The usual going and froing of host and bully entreating me to stay. Nope. I wasn’t angry, passionate or riled, “I am nearly 50 years old. I don’t need to be around and deal with assholes. Thank you for the invitation and hospitality but I’m not interested in joining you. Please take this time to teach your friend some manners. Thank you, goodbye.” Varun got in the car and we drove away.
I didn’t stand up to a bully but I did call his bad behaviour and refuse to engage without raising my voice or even blood pressure. It felt, and feels still, powerful in resistance. Right now I’m proud of how it went.
Now, I’m going to read for a bit and then hit the hay.
It’s my last full day in India. Varun and I had breakfast together, he came to my room and we drank lashings of masala chai with jam toast and fruit. He has some catch up work to do so I’m taking my Kindle and going down to the garden to read in the sun.
When I got back to my room I really wanted some fragrance so chose Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur. The most precious beauty of her collection for me. A perfect fit coming in hot and sweaty, it gave the fragrance a whole new lived in feel.
Painted some signs for the hotel, there were about 7 in all but these two are the ones I really loved.
Varun and I went to a nearby hotel, one of the Neemrana group, for lunch. It was a buffet and the selection, quality, taste and presentation were super fabulous. There were enough waitstaff for one per person because the restaurant was pretty quiet. Can’t compliment the experience enough. Dessert was this incredible dish, like deep fried cookie dough, that you have with ice cream. Words fail me…..
At night we hung out at Varun’s hotel. Very chill last night. We ate, chattered and finished off the signs. The night was tinged with the sadness of me leaving tomorrow but still fun. We are so comfortable with each other nowadays that some thinking time between sentences is expected.
Woke up, showered and drenched myself in vintage Miss Dior parfum.
Varun took me for my farewell and Birthday lunch. He’s so funny. PIZZA HUT! My first fast food since arriving in India. It was bloody delicious and he was so chuffed with himself for thinking of it. How could anyone fail to love someone so wonderful?
Then he took me shopping for my Birthday Present. I protested but to no avail. He was determined, and that happens so rarely that I let him have his moment. It was sweet and lovely. I will wear my gift and think of him every time.
On the road, four hours from Alwar to Delhi Airport. Varun and I said our goodbyes at the hotel and now I have a driver who will drop me. As the miles fly by I’m reflecting on what a perfect two weeks we have had. So lucky to have this guy still in my life after 17 years as a lover and BFF.
Woo Hoo! Even though I’m flying China Southern Economy because they are star Alliance and I am Morning Calm with Korean Air I get preferential treatment! That means Priority Boarding and access to the Delhi Airport Business Lounge. Meaning I get free food and drink, have a comfortable seat and super clean toilets while I wait.
I might have done some Duty Free Shopping. I clearly have a problem but I WANTED THEM ALL!!!
CHANEL Antaeus Deodorant Stick, CHANEL Coco Shower Gel & Soap, Gucci Absolue, Narciso Rodriguez EdT and the NEW Guerlain Les Absolus d’Orient 15ml Travel Set
The girl at the Check In desk could not have been sweeter or more helpful. She even gave me a window seat with extra leg room!!
Arriving in China next morning there was a girl waiting at the gate with my name on a board. You have to HURRY only 12 minutes till your plane goes. SHIT!!!! She grabbed me and ran, like a marathon running ex-paramilitary sergeant, to the Transfer Gate. Here she ran me past the lines to the Special Needs line, pushed past a group of wheelchairs, and got me to the front where they stamped my passport. Then she RAN me through security, screaming at everyone along the way, and along to our gate another 500m away. I was puffing and blowing like a steam train by now. We get to the gate and I’m like, “Do I have to run down the gangway?” She looks at me and says, “I’m so sorry. Wrong information. One hour twelve minutes. So sorry.” We look at each other and basically collapse laughing, I can’t even breathe at this point. Hilarious. So I take a seat and get my breath back before boarding at a much more dignified pace.
China Southern came through again with an exit row.
We get into Sydney about 30 minutes late at 8pm. Jin is already waiting at the exit gate for me. I get quickly through the electronic passport control and am only the second from our flight at the Baggage Carousel. So I wait, and wait, and wait. There are three bags left on the carousel, none mine. I go to the Baggage Desk and ask. “Oh yes, your luggage did not get on the plane. It will be coming tomorrow.” OK, no biggie. Poor Jin has been waiting at the gate for nearly two hours though so he is less than impressed.
That first hug, when you get to bury your face in their neck and smell home. NOTHING on earth is so good. It’s only been two weeks but I clearly missed this wonderful man.
Doing stuff around the house till nearly midnight and decided the thing I wanted most in the world was a Bubble Bath. Lalique Homage Shower Gel became my bubbling juice. It’s a wonderful masculine scent and it was the perfect balm to 24 hours of travel.
YAY! I’m home. Jin has a couple of days off and we can hang out together. Slept in till 10am and woke up to a perfect spring sunshiny day. The smell of him cooking mo-mos was all it took to rouse me from my slumber. No one on earth makes them better. A quick swipe in soy sauce and I’m in heaven. Perfect welcome home meal.
I have caught a bit of a throat infection somewhere along the way and am coughing up some spectacular globs of green and yellow.
ALSO, I spend nearly 3 weeks in India eating street, home and restaurant food. My body loves it and is doing perfect poo. Come home for 24 hours and I’m shitting soup. What is wrong with me?
There was quite a bit of perfumed box mail on the table for me when I arrived home. Here’s a pic of the haul while I was gone. Guerlain Mitsouko EdT, Korres Japanese Rose Shower Gel x 2, Bal A Versailles parfums 30ml & 7ml, Tabac Original Shave Soap refill
Today has been a lazy day hanging around the house with Jin, catching up here on the blog and drinking litres of tea with honey & lemon, hoping to break this cough up.
Wearing the furry, sweet, skanky goodness of Bal a Versailles EdT & parfum. I smell so freaking gorgeous.
We went to Outback Steakhouse tonight for Blooming Onions and STEAK! It was bloody delicious. I’m so full that my tummy physically hurts. OwOwOOOOWWWWWWW but happy.
Tonight at 8.45pm the luggage arrives from the airport. Couriered to my home. Thank you China Southern Airways and Sydney Airport Baggage Department.
Good morning Saturday. I’m so excited. The dogs are coming home today! YAY! I love having Paris around to cuddle and walk. The house feels a little empty without them both.
The Pharrell Williams Girl bottle jumped out at me today screaming WEAR ME! I did. Longevity is only very short but it’s fun to respritz. Amusingly Jin asked me if I was wearing Joop!
YAY! They are back and cuddles were in order.
It’s 35C today! WOW! Bloody hot out there.
This afternoon Kath & I went for our first swim of the season. It was pretty cold but after a few seconds my body attuned and I was in for a short while, did a couple of laps and got out. As I was drying myself off we realised that my Tigers Eye bracelet had broken so in I went again and hunted beads, very hard when you’re as blind as I am.
Home to change and thought I’ll just lie down for a minute with Paris. OOOPSIE! Woke up hours later. Missed out on seeing Phil and it was already time for dinner. Jin and I had Chinese at a BarBQ place he’s wanted to eat at for ages. The place smells dirty and the food is presented in varying shades of brown, no colour or excitement. I will say that it tasted delicious, seriously great. He will have to go there alone next time or do take away.
I’ve got this weird phlegmy cough. Jin has made a Tupperware container of his fave Korean remedy. Sliced Lemon, Lime, Dates and Ginger. Steep in water with or without tea, add honey to taste.
Before bed I drank two jugs of the remedy, a bunch of water and spritzed Neela Vermeire Creations Rahele. Who doesn’t feel better when smelling of fruity osmanthus leather? Goodnight all.
GAWD! I’m so sick. Nose running uncontrollably. Coughing like a 70 year old chain smoker. Sweating.
BLEAUGH!!!
Tried to get a fill in for work tonight. The girls are busy. Going in feeling like shit.
Had a super hot bubble bath in LUSH Rose Jam, used Amouage Dia lotion and Parfum.
OK, enough about me. How was your week? Anything fun, fragrant, food or friend related happen?
Share, we love it.
Portia xx
